Midnight was beginning to roll around. I was at a club with two of my friends, but I guess I’m not fun at parties because they had already left me a long time ago to drink with someone else. The party had only just started, but I wasn’t feeling it at all. I looked around. Everyone was drinking, smoking and dancing. I’m good at none of those things. I finally began to understand why I’d never been invited to these sorts of events; I’m just boring. With nothing to do, I had decided to leave early; no one would notice anyway.
In a situation like this, I would usually call an Uber driver, but my phone was low on battery and there was a bus stop nearby, so I started walking there instead. It was very cold outside. The winter had already begun, and it showed no remorse. Luckily the bus stop was not far away, so I got there fairly quickly. Right away I checked the timetable and there was a bus arriving at 12:21 a.m., exactly ten minutes later. It would drop me off close enough to my house. So I waited.
Twenty minutes had passed. I was getting bored by now. I had already seen a few buses and every single one arrived on time. I was pretty surprised by how full they were, though. This late at night, I would only expect to see a few people in each bus. I continued to wait.
Thirty minutes. At this point, I was tired and irritated, and I would likely have just taken another bus, but just then I saw a light. Finally, it had arrived.
I slowly came inside. Unlike the other buses I’ve seen that night, this one was entirely empty, save for one elderly man. I smiled; it was a relief I wouldn’t have to deal with a huge crowd again. I came up to the bus driver.
“Where ya’ headin’?” he asked me, not even looking in my direction. He sounded like your average grumpy old man.
I gave him the name of my station, paid for the ticket and took a seat. Not wanting to doze off, I put on my headphones and started playing some heavy metal. It was nice not to get weird looks for using an MP3 player, like I usually do.
As time went on, I was getting a little impatient again. I checked my watch; it was already 1:26 a.m. The old man was fast asleep. At that moment, I realised something really weird. The bus had not stopped a single time since I’d entered it. Maybe it actually did, and I was just too invested in my music to notice? Either way, I looked through the window, and I did not recognise any of my surroundings. Did I fuck up somewhere? Are we even on our way to my house? I was riddled with doubts.
“Excuse me, when are we arriving at my station?” I hesitantly asked the bus driver.
“Soon” he mumbled. He sounded angry for some reason. I made no further comments.
This entire bus trip was getting really sketchy and I just wanted to leave already, but I couldn’t do anything but wait. Alone with my thoughts. Why did I even go to that party again? I had no fun at all, and now I had to deal with this bullshit. If only I had charged my phone beforehand, if only I had called an Uber driver. If only.
The bus stopped. It was so sudden, I’m glad I had fastened my seatbelt, ‘cause God knows what would have happened if I hadn’t. After the initial shock, I looked around. Any hopes of finally having arrived were quickly diminished; all I could see through the windows were trees. This was the point where the fear really started kicking in. I just wanted to safely get home and forget all this.
Then, out of nowhere, the bus driver stood up and said, “You are at your destination”, after which he pulled out a knife.
He charged at the old man and started stabbing him. Panic. I frantically began pressing the button that opens the door, but it didn’t work. I dashed to the second door, didn’t open either. Panic. Looking all around me, the realisation hit me that I was done for. But then I noticed something - the glass breaker.
The glass breaker, of course! Did he not think of that? I grabbed it and smashed open the window, jumped out of it and started sprinting in a random direction. I heard a few screams and shouts but I eventually lost him.
Well, now I was in the middle of nowhere. With the 2% of battery that I had on my phone, I called the police. When they got here, a few of the cops went into the forest to look for the murderer and the body.
Meanwhile, I was taken to a police department. Obviously, they interviewed me, but I didn’t really have any useful information to give, aside from how the dude looked, so they let me go pretty quickly. They then finally took me home.
When I came in, I immediately charged that goddamn phone, laid on the couch and tried my hardest to sleep, but even though my body was extremely tired, I just couldn’t stop thinking about what had just gone down. As the night was coming to an end, I decided I would just go get some coffee and take a nap during the day.
I went into the kitchen and began brewing an espresso. It was just what I needed to get some necessary energy for a few hours. While preparing the drink, I looked out the window.
I froze. It was that bus, parking in front of my residence. I thought the cops had done something about him, but I suppose not. I didn’t know what to do, so I called them again. Strangely, it had been a few minutes, and the vehicle had not moved; the driver hadn’t come out either.
Knocking. Suddenly I heard knocking on the door. I didn’t see anyone comeout of the bus, but…
“It’s the police, open up”, I heard from downstairs. Phew, what a relief.
I went down, albeit still a bit hesitant, and opened the door.
“Well, we’ve searched the entire town here, but there’s no sign of the bus to be found. We’re gonna keep looking, though.” they said. I don’t really know what I expected from them, but alas, that’s what I got.
As the police cars began to drive out of sight, I noticed a sticky note on the other side of the door window. Did they, perhaps, leave a message for me? I grabbed the note and checked it.
“I’m gonna get ya’ :)”